Don't fear the tab. Tab is here to make reading music simple and, while at first glance it may SEEM just as confusing and fiddly as conventional music scoring, it's actually a WAY simpler way to explain which notes to play (and where to put your fingers).
Plus there's a whole bunch of picking and bending instruction - essential for modern playing - that old-fashioned music notation simply doesn't provide.
Tab is short for tablature, and it basically shows where notes should be played on your guitar's fretboard. i.e. Rather than being a list of notes you need to play (and letting you figure out the realities of how to do that) it's literally a map of where to put your fingers.
Tab often appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top.
It's like this so that if you sit with your guitar in your lap and look down at it, the tab on the page (or on the screen) will match the strings on your guitar neck.
Thick low E closest to you (at the bottom of the tap)… Top E furthest away (at the top of the tab). Simple.
On these lines, numbers represent the frets where you should place your fingers. As per our example above, a D note on the 2nd string, 3rd fret will be shown as a number ‘3’ on the second line down on the tab.
Unfretted strings (or 'open' with no fingers on the fretboard) are shown with a ‘0’. i.e. No fret needed - just play the string.
The key and time signatures are shown in the traditional notation. A helpful timestamp may also tell you where in the actual audio track this bit of music appears. And a tempo marking is expressed in beats per minute.
Fret boxes: chords, scales and capo notation
Hand labelling
Of course, with tab telling you where to put each finger on the fretboard, you're going to have to know which finger it's talking about…
Here are the tab abbreviations. On your fretting hand that's 1, 2, 3, 4 and T for thumb
And on your picking hand that's p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (annular), c (little finger)
Chords mapped on the fretboard
This is a fretbox.
The fretbox diagram represents the guitar’s fretboard exactly, as seen in the photo. Now, by placing numbered 'fingers' on the fretbox it can be used to quickly show you where to put your fingers in order to play chords or a scale.
Playing a chord
This diagram shows you how to play a G chord. The ‘o’s are open strings, and a circled number is where to place your fretting hand finger. A black ‘o’ or circled number denotes the root note of the chord (here, G).
Simply place the right fingers where it says… And strum… Done!
Using a capo
If you see a blue line on the diagram that represents where to place a capo.
In our example above, for this A chord, the capo is placed at the 2nd fret. Note that capos – by effectively shortening the neck of the guitar – change the fret number ordering.
A capo on the 2nd fret moves everything two frets up. So here, the original 5th fret now becomes the 3rd fret. The 7th fret now 5th fret, and so on.
Basically the capo can be considered as being the 'nut' at the end of the neck and so all counting starts from there.
Capo notation
Here, the chord looks like a C in the tab, but the capo on the 2nd fret raises the pitch to make it a D. The 2nd fret capo’d notes are shown with a ‘0’ in the tab as if they were open strings.
Tab showing a scale
Here the fretbox diagram illustrates the fret hand fingering for the A major scale.
It's using black dots for root notes and red dots for other scale tones. Meanwhile the photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with the first, third and fourth fingers.
Guitar techniques: Picking
Down and up-picking
Tab does its absolute best to tell you as much information as possible – even down to how to pick notes.
Here symbols under the tab tell you the first note is to be down-picked and the second note is to be up-picked.
(Remember that '7' in our example is the fret number you need to hold down rather than being a seventh finger…)
Tremolo picking
There's even symbols for tremolo playing. Here each of the four notes are to be alternate-picked (down- and up-picked) very rapidly and continuously.
Palm muting
And here's the symbol for palm-musting notes. A palm-mute is acheived by resting the edge of your picking hand palm on the strings near the bridge saddles which stops them ringing so brightly and gives that distinctive 'muted' sound.
Pick rake
Here you've got to drag the pick across the strings shown with a single sweep. This is often used to augment a rake’s last note.
Arpeggiated chord
And here you have to play the notes of the chord by strumming across the relevant strings in the direction of the arrow head.
Fretting Hand
Hammer-on & pull-off
Let's get into some more techniques that tab can features.
For the hammer-on and pull-off here you must pick the first note then hammer down on the string for the second note. Pick the third note and pull-off for the fourth note.
Note trills
And for a trill, after picking the first note, rapidly alternate between the two notes shown in brackets using hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Slides (glissando)
A glissando (or slide) looks like this.
Pick the first note and then slide to the next. For the last two notes pick the first, slide to the next and then re-pick it (that's the 'RP' symbol).
Fret-hand tapping
Sound the notes marked with a square by hammering-on/tapping with your fret-hand fingers, instead of picking.
Fret-hand muting
Here, the X markings represent notes and strings that are muted by your fret hand when struck by your picking hand.
Bending and vibrato
Bend and release
Fret the first note (here, the 5th fret) and bend up to the pitch of the bracketed note, before releasing again.
Re-picked bend
Bend up to the pitch shown in the brackets, then re-pick the note while holding the bent note at the pitch shown.
Pre-bend
Silently bend the string up from the 5th fret (PB5) to the pitch of the 7th fret note, pick it and release to the 5th fret note.
Quarter-tone bend
Tab really has got everything… Here you have to pick the note then bend up a quarter-tone (a very small amount). This is sometimes referred to as a ‘blues curl’.
Vibrato
Vibrato is an essential playing technique and tab has got you covered.
Here it's telling you that your fretting hand should vibrate the string by small bend-ups and releases. You can then exaggerate this effect to create a ‘wide’ vibrato.
Harmonics
Natural harmonics
Pick the note while lightly touching the string directly over the fret indicated. Get your technique just right and you'll get a lovely chiming harmonic.
Artificial harmonics
Fret the note as shown, then lightly place your index finger directly over ‘x’ fret (AH ‘x’) and pick (with a pick, p or a).
Pinched harmonics
After fretting the note in the triangle, dig into the string with the side of your thumb as you sound it with the pick.
Tapped harmonics
Place your finger on the note as shown, but sound it with a quick pick hand tap at the fret shown (TH17) for a harmonic.
Touched harmonics
A previously sounded note is touched above the fret marked TCH (eg, TCH 9) for it to sound a harmonic.
Vibrato bar/whammy bar
Whammy bar bends
Here, the note is picked as shown, then the vibrato bar is raised and lowered to the pitches shown in brackets.
Scoop and doop
And you can even scoop and doop…
Scoop: depress the bar just before striking the note and release. Doop: lower the bar slightly after picking note.
Sustained note and divebomb
A note is sustained then the vibrato bar is depressed to slack. The square bracket indicates a further articulation.
Gargle
Sound the note and ‘flick’ the vibrato bar with your picking hand so it ‘quivers’. This results in a ‘gargling’ sound!
Whammy bar vibrato
Gently rock the whammy bar to repeatedly bend the pitch up and down. This sounds similar to fret hand vibrato.
Others
Pick scrape
The edge of the pick is dragged either down or up along the lower strings to produce a scraped sound.
Violining
Turn the volume control down, and play the note(s) with the volume off. This removes the initial 'pluck' from the sound. Then turn the volume up for a smooth 'pluck-less' fade in.
Finger numbering
The numbers in the traditional notation refer to the fingers required to play each note.
pima directions
Any kind of fingerpicking requirements are shown at the bottom of the tab notation.
Pick-hand tapping
Tap (hammer-on) with a finger of your picking hand onto the fret marked with a circle. Usually with ‘i’ or ‘m’.
And that's it!
Don't stress over some of those more advanced techniques. We've included them here for completeness and – chances are – you'll come across some of them only very rarely.
Spend time nailing the basics and practicing the tab on songs you're familair with.
Then, as your confidence grows you can tackle more complex tab and always come back to this guide to remind yourself of what some of those little squiggles really mean.
Want to learn more. With tab under your belt why not try learning a few open-position guitar chords?
